The egg white, half-and-half and soda water work together to create a cocktail with a velvety texture. / Hannah Messinger

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Hannah Messinger

Nothingbutdelicious.blogspot.com.

About

Hannah Messinger comes from a food-centric family that has owned and run The Mt. Vernon Restaurant in Chattanooga since the 1950s. She works in Nashville as a food writer, stylist and photographer. You can see more of her work at http://nothingbutdelicious.blogspot.com.

Hey Rooster General Store

The store is at 1106 Gallatin Ave. in East Nashville and is open every day except Tuesday.

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I met Courtney Webb a couple weeks ago and, right off the bat, she was saying all the right words to me: chai peanut butter, white truffle mayonnaise, lovage soda syrup. Let me elaborate.

Webb is a Nashville native who moved to New Orleans to study architecture, then moved to New York for a long while, where she became a part of the artisan community through markets and exhibits. In the end, New York was the right place, the wrong time. So she returned to Nashville, and she brought with her all the unique goods that she discovered in the city.

Her shop, Hey Rooster General Store, opened in April. Itís a small, sea foam green building with a yellow door on Gallatin Avenue, meticulously filled with things that are anything but general: beer and pretzel caramels, chai peanut butter, handmade cutting boards, pickle brine, and nine different flavors of mayonnaise (does that make your heart flutter a bit too?).

And thatís where we come to lovage syrup. Lovage is an herb that grows in moderate climates all over the world and was once popular as a cordial that was said to ease the symptoms of jaundice, rheumatism and sea sickness. These days, itís hard to come by.

It looks and smells like the inner leaves of celery heart, but has a deep and spicy note like watercress or arugula, a flavor that is perfectly suited to balance out richer concoctions. Iíve been hoping to cook with lovage all summer, but have been deterred by the fact that it refuses to grow in my little garden. The only place Iíve been able to get my hands on it is at Hey Rooster.

This cocktail is based on the Ramos gin fizz, which originated in New Orleans in 1888 at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon, the ďpalace de palate, coarsely called a barĒ owned by Henry C. Ramos.

The classic version is flavored by orange-flower water, egg white and cream. Donít you be deterred by that and donít omit it either. The cream and egg work together to make the drink sumptuous, the way a root beer float is a pleasing combination of creamy, fizzy and foamy. My version is flavored with lovage instead of orange-flower water, making it a little more savory.

One final suggestion regarding the gin fizz, from Henry Ramosí obituary in the New Orleans Item-Tribune, September 1928: ďPause a moment... before you ... [sip] ... one of these snowy white, velvety fizzes so that you might add the great pleasure of anticipation to the greater one of consumption. Pause and consider in awe the fortune about to befall you. ...Ē